Okay, Rumpelstiltskin
by skulls-surround-suns
Summary: On the first day of her new ice cream parlor job Annabeth meets her mysterious coworker. Tall and handsome, with a shock of green hair, this mysterious person seems to draw her attention, even though she is repelled by his antics. One accidental drunk text later and Annabeth is about to know just how much his jokes get to her. And just how much she loves it.


All rights to Rick.

 **Please enjoy!**

Okay, Rumpelstiltskin

Annabeth stepped through the doorway and closed her eyes. She inhaled. The shoppe smelled sweet and cold, as an ice cream parlor should. She remembered this scent from her childhood, the warm summer afternoons where her dad would lift her atop her shoulders and hand her a cone of ice cream. This shoppe smelled like memories.

She opened her eyes. The shoppe was colder than it had ever been, probably because it was seven in the morning. The room had been remodeled since the last time she had been here, before she moved away. The faded purple booths had been exchanged to shiny new blue ones, the dirty white walls covered in children's sticky handprints had been painted a sleek grey and the picturesof the people who visited the parlor had been replaced by a large state farm add. Although the shoppe was different, she could still tell it was the same one that she went to all those many years ago.

"Ahhh! You must be Anniebeth!" A loud man's voice broke her out of her reverie.

"Actually, it's pronounced Annabeth." She said, purely out of habit. She blushed. Maybe it was not such a good idea for her first words to her boss to be correcting him.

"Oh, well Annabeth, I am so glad that you took the job offer. Not many people are ready to take the seven o'clock shift!"

The man waddling toward her, her boss, seemed to be around his middle ages, somewhere between thirty and fifty. He was short and plump and had a reddish sort of face that reminded her somewhat of...an ostrich. He had a large nose and small watery eyes set apart from each other. Ronald Curt. That had been the name she had been emailing trying to get the job. When she had imagined him the man that stood before her holding out his hand was not the man she imagined when she practically begged for a summer job. None the less she shook his hand.

"Welcome, welcome. Follow me to the back and I will show you how everything runs around here. You can also meet your new co-worker."

This was the part that made Annabeth the most nervous. Meeting the coworker. She hoped that they weren't rude and they did their share of the work. Coming to the ice cream shoppe had always been a good experience for her, so she hoped working at one would be too.

Ronald-er- Mr. Curt led her to the back room of the building. He opened the door to a room labeled freezer room and beckoned her forward. Annabeth took a deep breath and stepped in.

The first thing that hit her was the cold. _Well, duh it's cold. This is a freezing room._ Even so, the cold blast of air that bit her nose and gave her goose bumps made her wish for a warm jacket. She rubbed her hands over her bare arms and breathed out a puff of mist.

The second thing the noticed was the ice cream. Stacks and stacks of large cartons of ice cream lined the wall. Vanilla, chocolate, strawberry. Even something called Dinosaur. They piled on top of eachother, overflowing from bins and nooks in the wall. Frost lined the edges of the containers. She touched one of the ones nearest to the door. The ice melted to the shape of her finger tips.

And lastly, the third thing that she noticed, and possibly one of the most important, was the man standing at the other end of the room smirking at her. He stared at her with a mischievous light in his eyes. He had nicely tanned skin and pink cheeks, rosy from the cold. He was tall and fit, not too thin, not too muscular. He, unlike her, was dressed warmly, in jeans and a surfing sweatshirt. Probably the most unusual aspect of him was his hair. It stood up every which way like he hadn't bothered to brush it that morning and was a bright shade of green. Annabeth could only describe it as seam monster green. He pulled on his earlobe, a gesture which she presumed was a nervous tick. He looked nice enough, but there was something about him that made Annabeth think that she was going to have a very eventful summer.

She walked forward and nodded in his directing. His grin widened. Then Mr. Curt went to explain the various flavors and how to take them out of the bins and place them in the display. He showed them how to take the perfect scoop and how much ice cream to give each person. Soon it was 7:45 and Mr. Curt left them with fifteen minutes to prepare the shoppe before eight o'clock opening time.

Mr. Curt left and Annabeth was left alone with the man she would be working with. To break the awkward silence that enveloped them as soon as the door closed behind Mr. Curt she decided to introduce herself.

"Hello, I'm Annabeth." There was a long pause. Annabeth looked at the guy. If possible his smile got even bigger. Suddenly he stopped smiling and stuck out his hand for what she guessed was a handshake.

"Hi, I am Nobody." Annabeth raised her eyebrow.

"Nobody?" She said incredulously. _This guy has got to be the biggest idiot if he expects her to believe that._ "What is your actual name? I am _not_ going to call you Nobody."

"No, no , no. Call me that! Then I will be trouble proof." He grinned once again. Annabeth sighed. Maybe she would try a different approach to break the ice.

"I like your hair. It's a cool colour."

He ran his hand through his hair.

"Thanks, this colour is called forest."

"Really, I would think it would be called sea monster." She said before she could stop herself. Annabeth mentally face palmed. _Great, now he will think I am weird. He'll probably avoid me because I am such a massive dork. I should just be quiet for all of eternity._ To her surprise, her co-worker laughed.

"Sea Monster! I like that. If you prefer, you can call me that instead." _Well at least it will get me out of trouble. I can't say "Nobody" did it when he inevitably gets us into trouble._

"Fine. Sea monster it is." Annabeth concluded. Of course, Sea Monster grinned.

At eighteen o'clock Annabeth walked up to the door of the parlor and flipped the sign closed. So far her first day had gone well. A lot of little kids had come to the shoppe, pressing their noses against the display and pointing out what they want to their parents. Their parents would smile as their children described piles upon piles of their favorite icecream flavor. They would hand a five to whoever was working the cash register and whisper "Small kids scoop" to prevent a massive sugar rush later. When handed a small cone of ice cream, the kids would squeal in delight nonetheless even though it was not what they had asked for. Every time Annabeth saw the exchange she would smile. She loved kids.

And you know who also loved kids? Sea Monster (it still felt weird calling someone that). And kids loved him. Their eyes would widen when they heard his name( yeah, he still went by sea monster) and they would laugh when he would smile and ruffle their hair while giving them their cone. Part of Annabeth felt jealous. Why wasn't she that good with kids. The other part of her felt charmed to the core. Any guy who is _that_ good with kids is fine in her book(even if they are _that_ idiotic).

Annabeth wiped her hands on her apron. She went to the back and started to turn the lights off and lock the freezer. When she came out in the main room she saw Sea Monster sponging the counters. She grabbed a sponge and moved to the opposite side of the counter, cleaning all of the remnants of food. She bumped into him.

"Oh, sorry."

"It's ok." They were silent after that. When Annabeth had finished her part of the cleaning she took off her apron and grabbed her bag. As she was preparing to leave, Sea Monster stopped her.

"Wait!" She stopped and turned around. Sea Monster took his phone out of his back pocket.

"Can I have your number?" He showed her the screen of his phone.

" _Excuse me!_ "

Sea monster laughed.

"It's store policy. So that we can get ahold of each other in case of emergencies and sick days."

Annabeth breathed a sigh of relief. _Thank god. I thought- never mind what I thought. That's stupid. We're not that close._ She smiled and gave him her phone while taking his. She typed in her name and number and then took a profile picture. She was sure she would have been blushing from embarrassment if not for her dark hawaii tanned skin. She handed Sea Monster back his phone and took hers. He had taken almost fifteen selfies in various positions and faces. He chose one of the ugliest ones for his profile photo. Annabeth rolled her eyes. She put her phone in her bag and said goodbye to Sea Monster . She ducked out of the shoppe and headed home.

Music rang loudly throughout the entirety of the house. Annabeth could feel the bass pounding through the floor. Masses of sweaty bodies grinded against each other to the beat of the drums. The rooms smelled like alcohol, pot and sweat, a disgusting combination that made Lilou wonder why she had even come here in the first place. She hated parties. Her answer came in the form of her drunk best friend Piper. Piper sashayed her hips and mimed pulling Annabeth closer with a rope. _Why is it that I am always surrounded by crazy people?_ She smiled anyway. On the dance floor her friend was raising her hands up to the ceiling and blabbering some words to the popular top forty song that was playing. She teetered on her heels and almost fell over, but Annabeth had time to catch her.

"We need to go home!" Annabeth yelled over the music.

" _What!"_

"WE NEED TO GO HOME!"

"Noooo!" Piper whined.

"Yeees! You need to get your drunk Cherokee ass out of here before you puke on somebody!"

"But I don't wanna."

Annabeth tugged on her arm.

"Come on, let's go." Piper dug her heels into the ground.

"One drink. You have to have at least one drink, and then I will go. You just turned 21, why are you not taking advantage of that?"

"Fine, one drink. Then we are calling a cab and getting out of here."

"Yaay!" Piper shrieked in joy.

Four drinks and one cab ride later, Piper and Annabeth sat cross legged on Annabeth's bed.

"Soo, tell me all about Mr. Handsome." Piper giggled. Annabeth slapped her friend's shoulder playfully.

"He's not that handsome," She drawled. "And he's a total idiot. He has me call him 'Sea Monster'."

"Oooh, Sea monster, sexy." Both girls erupted into a fit of giggles, rolling around the top of the bed.

"You should totally hook up with him." Malati commented.

"Eww! Never! That's gross Piper, just gross!"

"Well at least ask him out on a date." Piper insisted.

"I don't know. I barely know the guy. Just 'cause he's -hic- hot, doesn't mean he has a good personality."

"Who cares about that? I dare you to ask him out, right now!"

"Ok, fine. Just let me finish this last glass of wine." Annabeth downed the glass and wiped her mouth. She reached for her phone and pulled up Sea Monster's contact. She typed a message and then showed it to her friend.

 **Hey Sea monster**

 **How it goin i want to ask u out**

 **go on a date wif meee!**

Piper nodded and affirmed that, yes, that was the ideal thing to send to her new co-worker. Annabeth hit send.

Annabeth pressed the snooze button on her alarm and groaned. _What happened last night? How much did I drink. Is this hangover a punishment from Haikili* from something bad she did, because there is thunder in my head right now?_ Her alarm went off yet again and Annabeth rolled over to hit snooze again when she looked at the clock. 6:50. She has to be at her job by seven. Annabeth sprang out of bed and ran to her closet. She put on the first thing she touched, a cover up with flower print. She grabbed a jacket and slipped on her shoes before sprinting out of her flat and down the stairs before doubling back to lock her front door. She ran down the street and into the ice cream parlor just in time for her to be…

"Five minutes late!" Called a sing-songy voice from behind the counter. Annabeth looked up panting. Sea Monster leaned against the displays smirking evilly at her.

"Wow. For a second there I thought you weren't going to come. I was already expecting a 'letting me know' text to tell me you weren't going to be in today because I already know how comfortable you are with my number." And with that, the whole night came back to her. The 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 drinks she had had. The awkward conversation she had had with her friend. And the awful, life ruining text she has sent to a very certain green haired acquaintance of hers.

"Oh my god, I am so sorry, I was drunk and I-" Annabeth started before Sea Monster interrupted her.

"Yes. I will do on a date with you."

" _What!"_

Sea monster smiled. "Hey look, it's time to open up." Sea monster flipped the sign so that it read open. "How will you be able to help the customers if your mouth is hanging open like that?"

If Annabeth was a little distracted that day, it wasn't her fault. Sure she may had messed up a few orders and may had sprayed a baby with whipped cream, but she couldn't help it. Her mind was on an entirely different topic.

She had asked Sea Monster out and he had said yes. It wasn't like she had anything against him(except for maybe his massive idiocy), but she just didn't know him well enough. Annabeth hadn't been on a date in, how long had it been, since freshman year of highschool. And now she was a sophomore in college. The last guy she had dated, Luke , had really gotten to her. He was the perfect guy, kind, caring, funny. He had no faults. Six months into the relationship she had found out that he had been cheating on her. Ever since then, Annabeth avoided love like it was the plague. She just wasn't sure if she was ready for it yet.

As the day came to a close, she approached Sea Monster.

"So, uh, Sea Monster. Can I, um, talk to you?"

"Yeah, sure. Is this about where our date should be." He wiggles his eyebrows.

"Actually, no. I was wondering if there was some way I could get out of it." Sea monster's expression hardened and he narrowed his eyes.

"No."

"Please," Annabeth pleaded desperately. "I don't think I am ready to date someone yet. This really awful guy broke my heart a while ago when I was very young and I just don't want to get into the romantic department yet." Sea monster's expression softened.

"I don't want to completely cancel our date, but I will give you a way to get out of it. If you can guess my name by Friday, that's in three days, then you won't have to go out with me."

"You're… going to have me guess your name?"

"Yep."

"Fine. What are the rules?"

"It starts tomorrow. You can guess as many times as you want. If you haven't guessed it by Saturday, you are treating me to dinner and ice cream."

"It's a deal." Annabeth stuck out her hand. Sea Monster shook it.

"Michael?"

"Nope."

"Adam?"

"Nope."

"John?"

"Leo, Frank, Bob?"

"Nope, nopity, nope." Sea Monster popped the P at the end of nope.

Annabeth sighed. Today was only the first day of Sea Monster's retarded game and she was already starting to feel hopeless. She had guessed dozens of names and none had been his so far. Of course he could be lying to her, but she doubted it. She had made him swear to Kapu, the Hawaiian god of code of conduct of laws and regulations. She remembered making leis with her mother when she was little to appease Kappu, threading flowers together to make beautiful decorations. She hopped that Sea Monster wasn't lying. If he was then Kapu was allowed to punish him anyway he saw fit.

"So what's up with your hair? Why is it such a strange colour?" Annabeth changed the subject.

"Well obviously I was born like this." Sea Monster ran a hand through his messy green hair.

"Dumbass, I can see your roots. And anyway, no one is born with green hair."

"Shhhh! No one must know that my hair isn't natural!" He said in a stage whisper. Annabeth laughed and shook her head at his antics.

"So, what's up with the hair?" She inquired.

"I dye it a different colour every month."

" _Really?_ "

"Yeah, don't sound so surprised. Since this June is almost over, I think I am going to dye it red, like ariel, to keep up with the under the sea thing I've got going here."

"You would be an ugly redhead." Annabeth stated, pointing the scooper at him before getting a scoop of mint ice cream for a little boy wearing a shark t-shirt.

It was the second day and Annabeth had come prepared. She had brought a list of over fifty boys names.

"William, James, Robert, Shawn, Nathan, Andrew, Jesse, Ross, Gregory, Josh, Jacob, Malcolm, Jack, Humphrey?" She listed off the names.

"No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, and no."

Annabeth huffed in frustration. Many of the kids were staring at them with curiosity from the blue booths that lined the wall.

"Are you two boyfriend and girlfriend." One little girl asked.

"NO!" Annabeth snapped at her.

"Well not yet." Sea Monster told the girl.

"Well not never." Annabeth said pointedly.

"Yeah, yeah, ok." Annabeth pretended that she did not see him wink at the little girl.

;;

At twelve o'clock Mr. Curt came in to take over for half an hour and give them a lunch break. Annabeth took off her apron and grabbed her bag and started heading down the street. Before she could get very far, Sea Monster ran to catch up with her.

"So, where are we going?" He asked.

"Well, _I'm_ going to the smoothie stand by the beach downtown."

"Ooh, sassy. I like smoothies, I'll come with you.

Sea monster and Annabeth walked down the street together. Annabeth told him about her parent's divorce a few years ago and how she had temporarily moved to California with her dad, but had to come back to her Native Hawaii. She talked about her family's history and about Hawaii's history. Sea Monster told her about his Greek father and Hawaiian mother. He had lived in New York for his whole life, but decided to move to Hawaii and go to University of Honolulu as soon as he got out of high school. Soon they had reached the smoothie shack. They both ordered a strawberry-orange smoothie and began to walk back.

"- and that is how I would kidnap someone." Sea Monster finished.

"I don't know if I should be impressed or concerned." Annabeth told him. He laughed, the corners of his eyes crinkling. A small dimple appeared on the side of his face. ' _That's cute.'_ Annabeth thought absentmindedly. They were walking slowly, still with ten minutes left until they had to be back at work. As they sauntered down the street, they paused in front of a shoppe. Annabeth looked at one of the books in the window. She checked her wallet and decided that she most likely did not have enough money to get it. She began walking away, but then stopped as soon as she noticed that Sea Monster was not following her. He was standing in the doorway of the shoppe with his eyes wide and the biggest smile on his face, staring at something on the ground. She walked over to him and looked at what he was staring at. It was a small, brown statue of a dog. She looked at him again and he remained staring at the dog statue. She poked him. She waved her hand in front of his face. Finally she whispered in his ear "Your roots are showing". Suddenly he snapped out of it.

"What the Hell was that about?"

"Hmm? Oh, nothing. I just have an undying love for dog statues."

"What?" Annabeth questioned. "That is the strangest thing I have ever heard."

"It's not that strange. We've all got our little quirks, dog statues are mine."

Annabeth shook her head and looked at her watch.

"Whatever, we need to go." Sea Monster nodded and they walked back to the parlor.

;;

Annabeth was serving her last customer, who happened to be the boy from before with the t-shirt with a shark on it. It turns out that he comes to the ice cream shoppe every day during summer vacation. When she asked for his name he said it was Perry.

Once everyone had left the shoppe (except for her and Sea Monster of course) she started to clean up. Once they had finished she grabbed her stuff and started to leave.

"Bye Sea Monster." She called.

"Bye Annabeth." He called back.

As she stepped through the door she thought of the little boy from earlier. Perry.

"Hey, Sea Monster?"

"Yeah."

"Is your name Perry." There was a long pause before he answered.

"No."

"Are you sure?" _Nobody pauses that long when answering such an easy question._

"Yeah, I'm sure." He began tugging on his ear lobe.

"Ok, bye." Annabeth suspected that he might be telling the truth, but there is more than meets the eye. She was prepared to go home and do some research.

It was five o'clock on the third, and last day, of Sea Monster's guessing game and for some reason Annabeth had not guessed one name. She was fairly certain of what it was. She had looked up the Greek variations to the name Perry and had a short list, but for some reason, she could not bring herself to guess one.

Annabeth tried to figure out why that was. Could it be that she actually liked hanging out with this weirdo? Maybe she had been enjoying his company over the past few days. Could it be that she is developing *shudder* feelings for him. Annabeth quickly pushed the thought to the back of her mind. Maybe she was just afraid that if she guessed his name and went through with cancelling the date it would be super awkward the next several months while they both work here. None the less she decides on not telling him. Unfortunately, he didn't get the memo.

As they were cleaning the spoons he attempts to break the silence.

"You haven't guessed any names today."

"No, I haven't."

"Why not?"

"Because I can't think of anything else."

"I know that's not true. Your a smart girl. I know you have figured it out by now." Annabeth said nothing.

"Tell me what you think it is." Annabeth looked at him. For once he wasn't smiling.

"Is your name Percy?"

"Yeah, that's it. I guess you're off the hook."

"Percy. That's a really hard name to guess."

"Yeah that was kind of the point." Annabeth looked at Sea-no, Percy. Her old thoughts came back. One seemed particularly persistent. _Do I like him?_

"Bye, see you Monday." Percy started to walk through the door.

"Wait!" He turned around. Annabeth tugged on her earlobe.

"So, for the date tomorrow, how does eight o'clock sound to you?"

Percy smiled and waited for Annabeth to catch up to him.

"I think that sounds great."

They walked away, down the strangely empty streets, nobody seeing them slowly link hands.

*Haikili is the Hawaiian god of thunder

 **A/N: For this story I used a "We work at an ice cream parlor together and it's been three days and you still haven't told me your name" prompt. For the quirks, I decided to go to a random quirk generator and pick the first four that came up. I got "dyes their hair every month", "is obsessed with dog statues", "Believes in ancient gods", and "tugs on their ear when they are nervous". It was a challenge, but an enjoyable one. After two hours of writing, I finally finished at 00:30 with the longest story I have written. I hope you liked it. Please favorite, follow and review.**

 **~skulls-surround-suns**


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